Cleaning Day
by seaweedfma
Summary: Done for the FMA Fic contest on LJ. Prompt 40: Ladies Only. Riza Hawkeye, mentions of who she's protecting. No pairing. Rated K. Riza cleans her gun and thinks about why she uses it- to keep her promise. Vague mentions of violence and gun use. No spoilers


**bTitle:/b** Cleaning Day  
**bAuthor:/b ** Seaweed_FMA  
**bSeries:/b** Either  
**bWord Count:/b ** 842  
**bRating:/b **PG  
**bCharacters:/b **Riza Hawkeye, mentions of who she has sworn to protect  
**bSummary:/b ** Hawkeye cleans her gun and reflects on why she uses it.  
**bWarnings:/b** Violence and gun use mentioned.

**bAuthor's Notes:/b ** A website mentioned Riza used a Browning pistol, so I used a Browning High Powered Standard 9mm (.?value=007B&cat_id=051&type_id=003)

I know it doesn't have the open trigger guard , but I guess that was Arakawa's artistic license.

The second gun Riza pulls on Lust in Episode 19 of Brotherhood appears to be a Browning. The information was taken from a You Tube video on how to clean this gun, so it is as accurate as possible.

lj-cut text="The instruments to clean her gun were laid out around her on the table, perfectly organized so it could be taken apart and put back together quickly and orderly with a minimum of effort."

The instruments to clean her gun were laid out around her on the table, perfectly organized so it could be taken apart and put back together quickly and orderly with a minimum of effort. It wasn't that she was lazy, but there was no reason to make the job any harder than it had to be with unnecessary energy expenditure.

As a solider, efficiency could be the difference between life and death.

After Riza clicked the chamber forward to make sure that it was unloaded- as it always was when she was at home- she removed the magazine.

With a satisfying click, she moved the slide forward and released the slide release.

It was as simple as breathing.

Breathe in.

Engage the second lug with the safety on the slide.

Breathe out.

Turn the gun over and push the pin out, making the slide release come forward and remove the slide release.

She couldn't count how many times she had done this before, and she had no idea how many times she would do it again to protect him.

She would never hesitate to protect him.

Her right hand gripped the slide firmly, her hands steady and dry. She released the safety and pulled forward, taking the slide of the gun off with it. Riza laid it down on the old, dirty cloth that had years worth of oil and grease stains on it- dating back to the first time that she ever stripped the gun- the first day she received it.

A soft smile filled her face. She remembered that day well. It was her first week at the Academy, and her first gun class. The male instructor had paid extra attention to her as she was the only female in the class, giving her extra instructions because he assumed that she wouldn't know what to do. But he was amazed to see that she field stripped the gun fully a minute faster than the next cadet who finished.

She had never told them that she had been practicing with her father's gun in her back yard, shooting at tin cans and cleaning the gun when she was done. Riza had become an expert at shooting and cleaning before her first period marked her change over to a young woman.

She removed the guide rod and the recoil spring, then pulled out the barrel itself, marveling at the simple silver design. It looked so innocuous, and yet that barrel had taken lives- killed fathers and brothers, sisters and mothers.

The gun was apart, and for a moment she looked at it, really studied it. It was just metal and plastic, wood and grease and oil. It was so simple, yet complex. She smiled at the thought. That was something that she could definitely understand and relate to.

Her mind wandered as she used rags made from old shirts to clean and re-lubricate the parts. Ever the practical woman, she had no need for expensive cleaning cloths when a cotton rag worked just as well- maybe even better. They were soft and didn't scratch the delicate parts, and they were porous enough to soak up the excess grease and oil from the cracks and crevices of each piece.

When the cleaning was over, she put the gun back together the same way she had taken it apart minutes before. A satisfied smile crawled across her face when she finally pushed the magazine back into the holder with a click and she put the completed gun back down on the cloth.

If she had been going for a speed field strip, she could have had the gun taken apart in 90 seconds and put back together in about the same amount of time. As it was, it was Saturday, and she had the whole day to enjoy the smell of gun oil and the satisfying look of a gun that was at its peak of perfection, cleaned by a person at the peak of hers.

She picked up the gun, lined up her eye in the site and half squeezed the trigger, stopping just before it would have discharged if there had been anything in the magazine or chamber. Riza couldn't help but think about how physically easy it was to pull the trigger and end a life. All it took was one press of her index finger and it was done.

But mentally, it never got easier to shoot someone. And she knew that it never would. The day that it became easy for her to shoot another human being was the day that she fully lost her soul. But until the day that the man that she swore to protect reached his goal, she knew that this gun was her lifeline, her anchor.

As much as it had become a calming, relaxing exercise to clean her gun, she looked forward to the day when she would never again have to point it at a living being again. The day would come when he would change the country, and she would be there for him, always.


End file.
